sepp blatter steps down at fifa president. we look at the men who may replace him at head of global football. ♪ ♪ you are watching al jazerra live from our headquarters in doha. also coming up. iraq's prime minister asks his allies for more help to beat isil. u.s. president obama program signs in to law legislation that limits the collection of private phone data. and a man with a plan, greece's mime perimeter heading to brussels but can he convinced

the approximated eu. we are live in agent senses. hello you can world football is waking up looking forward to new leadership following sepp blatter's announcement on tuesday that he will be stepping down at fifa president. the 79-year-old is expected to remain in charge until december. and that's when an election for a new president is expected. the former french footballer has announced his intention to stands. so who are the likely contends, he prince hussein from jordan who ran a strong campaign against blatter in last week's election. blatter's long time friend turned fierce critic michelle pettini. he's chief governor officer of uefa. jerome could also in the run and then from africa, the president of the confederation of africa football and fifa vice president as well.

robin adams is our sports presenter with me here in the studio in doha. i am mentioning possible contenders but what do they each bring to the table? >> well, i mean, uefa president platini always spoke about clean governance and strong root out corruption he's a pretty strong candidate and he has the votes of europe which is the second biggest in terms of the voting block in fifa. we saw last week in the 209 members they make up 53. of course a long-time friend of black, a long-team supporter said confederation of african football would always be supporting blatter and his bid to stay in offense. david say former france international they think it's unlikely he would make the cut in this extraordinary election congress which should be taking place. somewhere between december 2015 and march 2016. >> and, of course, the other issue, robin all eyes are now

kind of focusing on what will happen with the world cups of 2018 in russia and 2022 in qatar qatar. there is a statement from the chairman. englishing football league. let's listen to his reaction and then i'll talk to you. >> first of all financial accountability which it has never had. we need someone to go in and find out how much is coming in and how much is going out and where it's being spent in great detail. once you have done that, you need to sort out the govern's whichyougovern aswhich is all over the place which is he's then you have a chance. >> what is the reaction to that? >> the english f.a. has been the most vocal that there should not be a qatar 2022 world cup joining the chorus of everybody else we need to relook at the 2018 and 2022 world cups. qatar has been reacting to his statements saying i think he should focus on developing a team to reach and play in the

2022 qatar world cup rather that were concerning himself with organizing the tournament that's from the president of the qatar football association. that's been their stance. that qatar will be indeed be hosting the 2022 world cup and the matter as far as they are concerned is closed. >> interesting to see how it will all play out. at the same time today all eye on his south africa. they are now link today this investigation. what's go on there? >> first of all south africa is blatter's legacy, he promise today take the world cup to a different part of the world and the first african world cup in 2010 that's his legacy, even that is is being tainted allegations of corruption saying that africa could have been paying a bribe to concacaf. we expect the head of the african football association to make a statement because he's suspected as part of the alleged bribe that made its way to concacaf. >> we'll bring that statement to our viewers here at al jazerra. well lee leave threw leave you there

robe inning, thank you very much for the time being. other news. rescuers are still searching for hundred people after their cruise ship capsized in the yangtze river on tuesday, 18 confirmed dead, 14 14 rescued so far, adrian brown sent this update. >> reporter: behind me the yangtze river a powerful symbol in this part of china and now of course, the focus of this frenzied and continuing rescue operation. but it is a rescue operation that continues to be hampered by the weather. we have had torrential rain here during the past 24 hours although it has eased up during the past few hours. not enough, though, to make it easier for the teams of divers who have been working around the clock. those dive teams are now looking at the possibility of drilling three holes in to the up turned hull of the vessel to try to make it possible to enter the vessel that way. another option under consideration is to try to right

the vessel to try to refloat it. but, of course, is a much more challenging task. this river continues to yield more dead than living. another body was brought ashore this morning. china's premier has also been visiting the rescue scene addressing journal i haves saying this rescue operation will continue for as long as needed. china president continues to refereeing updates and later tonight the families of some of the missing will arrive here in the city where what is shaping up to be the country's worst maritime disaster in recent times continues to unfold. myanmar's navy is escorting hundreds of migrants found drifting off the coast in a crowded boat to the town in rakhine state. rakhine is where most of the persecuted rohingya minority live. it's not clear if the migrants on the boat are row hip ga.

the navel commanders say they won't take action until they have identified the 727 people on board. they were found stranded in a converted fishing boat five days ago. floorflorence looi has more. >> reporter: over last few days we have heard from various state-level official that his the boat crammed with 727 people will be moved to rakhine state. now, on we understand morning we got confirmation from the rakhine state spokesman that this boat will be moved to to northern rakhine state very close to the border with bangladesh. it's also where the government is keeping another group of boat people found in myanmar waters on the 22 *pd of may. about 10 days ago. now, the government says this smaller group. most are from bang los angeles deck we don't note identities of the 727 people found on friday. now, when we spoke to the government spokesman on tuesday he said they will be moved to an undisclosed location before they were finally transferred back or

reparticipate righted back to dang los angeles directer, suggesting a fair take exercise of their identities have already been completed but later corrected the statement to say the verification exercise will be conducted and is still ongoing. this whole attitude, the way the entire incidents has been handled reflects the government's attitude towards the refugees and my grants crisis and is in line with the government's eagerness to portrait theming being mostly economic migrant from bangladesh. the government refuses to acknowledge very few of these people getting on the boats to leave are rohingya, an he ethnic minority subject to discrimination and persecution who have to live forcibly segregated have very few rights and are considered stateless and friendless in myanmar. the myanmar government refuses to acknowledge it's their policies contributing to the crisis and are saying this is

just human trafficking and many of the people are economic migrants from bangladesh. the iraqi mime minister has asked for more support in the fight against isil. he met allies from the anti-isil coalition in paris. a report now from the french capital. >> reporter: in iraq, the bullets and bombs continue. it looks nowhere near over. the hot desert landscape a hot web of militaries and militias all trying to stop the advance of isil. in paris a start junk at that position, in this ornate setting, diplomats desperate to find the solution for iraq in its battle against isil. or as the group is called in arabic. dash.

>> translator: the exchange that we have had today have allowed us to combat these terrorists. >> reporter: the hand shakes and hopefulness meant to show how rez doubt hrao*ut this coalition remains. >> this will be as we have said a long campaign but we will succeed if remain united, determined and focused. and we are. >> reporter: on the table now an anbar action plan that promises to streamline weapons delivery and sanction wish isil for good. participants of this conference called again for a political transition in syria and said that if isil continues to take over more territory there, it will become more dangerous both for iraq and the region as a whole. a region confronted by a new kind of turmoil and the threat the likes of which they have never seen before.

mohamed, paris. greece's prime minister is due in brussels for crunch talks with european creditors and is hoping to strike a deal to save his country from falling in to a financial abyss but the e.u. has its own plan, crossing over to john who is joining us from athens. does anybody know the differences and what are alex's chances of winning the argument he's putting forward? >> reporter: there appear to me to be three major differences given what we know at the moment. the biggest by far is that the greek government is proposing spending no more than about one and a half billion dollars of revenue from taxes revenue raised from the greek people on repaying the dead this year. that would double next year and it would go up a little bit more thereafter. creditors at the moment seem to be proposing that greece spend more in the tune of six and a half billion dollars. from domestic tax to his repay that debt.

this is impossible to over estimate how much of a deal breaker this is for the greeks. if there is one reason why this was elected. it was to get the debt rescheduled and to spend lets of the greek economy each year repaying it. this will be the biggest point under discussion. another major difference is that you now have two documents on the table. the one that the greeks submit odd monday night and the one that its creditors submit odd tuesday night. major priority for this government elected at the end of january has been to get its documents as the basis of discussions they are probably looking at both documents i think the greek prime anyone's goal is late on wednesday, will be to get the greek documented doctored as the basis for discussions or to the extend that he can. or to the extend that ex-get it adopted. there is a perceived revenue shortfall from the revenue taxes

especially consumer taxes it will be about $1 billion in the greek view and in the view of their creditors it's twice that. so there has to be some sort of adjustment some sort of extraordinary revenue-raising scheme in order to plug the gap. having said that, there are also many areas of agreement areas where the greeks have compromised and those will be areas that the greek prime minister is keen to stress he's going to allow a roundly unpopular property tax to remain this year, he's not going to raise minimum wage this year, but only in stages next year, he says and he's going to abolish early retirement. these are again major concessions for the left wing government here in athenss . >> john, for you that update. john reporting from athens. still to come on al jazerra south korea steps up effort to his contain an outbreak of the mers virus plus a report by a canadian commission says the treatment of indigenous children in boarding schools amounted to cultural genocide.

>> heli again, the top stories on al jazerra. the outgoing head of football governing body was reportedly under investigation by your honor prosecute buyers the fbi following the corruption scandal that's rocked fifa. sepp blatter resigns on tuesday just four days after being reelects today a fifth term. u.s. media reports report that prosecutors are trying to get indicted fifa official to his cooperate. iraq's mime minister has asked for more help to fight

isil at a meeting in paris he says his country is not getting the support it needs. rescuers are in china are searching for 400 people still missing after their crew ship capsized in the yangtze river on monday. most elderly tourists, 18 confirmed dead, 14 rescued so far. let's go back to the resignation of fifa chief sepp blat he james dorsey say senior fellow at the school of international studies in singapore, joining us live from there. james, so is blatter's resignation what's needed to fix fifa? and can fifa be fixed? >> i suspect there are three reasons why sepp blatter resigned. first of all he wants to recast his legacy to the degree possible. and go down in history as the man who introduced reform within fifa. second of all given that the statutes of fetch fifa work in his

favor and he will be in his office another six to eight months he hope that his will buy him time with the u.s. judicial authorities and will give him the time, again to appear as a reformer. the third thing that i think worked -- motivated him is that he realized during last friday's presidential election, that there is a ground swell a substantial ground swell within fifa that wants change. >> so who is his likely successor? >> i think it's too early to tell. of course, prince ali ben houssine the jordanian prince who challenged him last friday has already said in principle that he is interested and willing to, again run for office. but we have six to eight months and there are potentially other candidates michelle platini has been named in the past. platini is a little bit damaged by both the fact that europe did

not unanimously vote in favor of prince ali last friday. in fact, platini's own country france voted for mr. blatter and he's tarnished by the deal he cut with qatar and the french president sarkozy, there are others, for example the head of the african confederation of football who is tainted by the past and steeped in fifa's current legacy, but has had presidential ambitions in the past and others will come out of the woodwork who we to don't know about yet. >> you were mentioned qatar just a moment ago james and as you know the investigation reopened an ongoing in to russia's football world cup 2018 and qatar in 2022. are these countries now at risk of not holding the world cups? >> i don't think that they are

more or less at risk since yesterday's resignation by blatter. as they were just before that. they are at risk. but i also do think that one has to question what the aim of all of this is. the aim in my mind is to root out a deep-seated culture of both financial and political corruption within world soccer governance. i still remain -- the opinion that most mega sporting events leave a legacy of debt and white elephants, qatar has the potential of leaving a legacy of social economic, if not political change. and, of course, because its position has been weakened the leverage on qatar increases and that's an opportunity i think one should exploit. >> okay, james, thank you very much for joining us from singapore. the government in exile says it's now prepared to attends a

meeting in geneva to help end the country's civil war. the talks were postponed but no new date set. our diplomatic editor james bays has more from the u.n. headquarters. >> reporter: taking place in just a matter of hours a u.n. security council meet to go discuss the situation in yemen. and ahead of that meeting the government of yep has made an important announcement, the spokesman for president hadi has told al jazerra that the government of yemen is prepared to go and have a meeting about the situation in geneva remember, there was supposed to be geneva peace talks starting last week but they had to be postponed. but the government of yemen is saying if it attends the meeting in geneva, there will be consultations about the situation not negotiations because they say they'll only take part in negotiations with the houthis if the houthis comply with the existing u.n. security council resolution. and withdraw from all the areas

that they have captured. i can tell you that separately there have been talks taking place in recent days that took place in muscat in oman, there are a number of nations were represented there. and we know that the u.s. sent a senior official, we know the houthis were also there. so a fresh effort from all parties to try to get the hawks under way again the u.n. would certainly like these peace talks back underway. the u.n. also making it clear that it would like another pause in all the fighting in yemen. the egyptian president sisi has arrived in germany while supporters turned up to greet him. there were several protesters opposing his arrival. sisi will be holding talks with the german president and chancellor but the president of parliament at the same time, has refused to meet him. and he cited a lack of democratic process in egypt for that reason not to meet sisi.

u.s. press barack obama has signed in to law new legislation that restricts the government's ability to collect the phone records of americans. earlier the senate passed the freedom act which overhauls u.s. surveillance laws, kimberly halkett explained from washington d.c. >> reporter: what the usa freedom act does is it restores the nsa's surveillance powers with minor modification. no longer will the government be able to automatically record the date and the time, the length and the phone number of american citizens making telephone calls instead the private companies will now do this. the private telephone companies the other change is that now the u.s. government will have to in order to access this information, which is once could do automatically now it needs to get a court order from the foreign intelligence surveillance court. still there are many not celebrating this resumption in survivesurveilsuhr surveillance.

the aclu says the most up cruise i have acts remain. it represents a shift in the american attitude the fact at that there was a we debate on this legislation is sipping. for so many years these provisions that expired were suber scamped. in fact they lapsed for more than a day and a half before the powers were scored. it shows a shift in an american attitude whereas after september 11th attacks americans were willing to trade privacy for increased security. that is no longer the case with the younger generation of americans they were less trusting of their government and more willing to challenge its authorities. edward snowden a former contractor for the u.s. national security agency has told amnesty international that mass surveillance doesn't work he made the comments on tuesday speak on the ground a video link from russia. >> in terms of intelligent gathering, in terms of surveillance, you know, watching our adversaries, you have to remember the fact that we have a

proven history now that these programs are not effective in the united states. we are a little bit ahead of the game because we had this. we had the boston marathon bombings for example where the united states government knew who these individuals were in advance of the attack, they were already identified and known to the intelligence services, but despite they were watching everybody in the country and they didn't thwart the attack. the question is why? because when you have individuals like me who are responsible for this going to a desker morning and try to go search through the world's communications from the previous day, week, month you realize very quickly that we can collect everything we understand nothing. well, just a moment ago we were telling that you egypt as leader is vice i i visit i go germany and there seems to be colts jersey around his trip. he's due to meet the german president as well as the chancellor but the president of parliament is refuting to meis him siting a lack of democratic process in egypt. let's get the thoughts of omar from the university of exeter

joining us here in doha. you know, we are saying there is controversy over the visit but the german government spokesman says that merkel will be meeting sisi because quote egypt is an immensely important player in the arab world. she has a point. >> it is a situation where you are trying to balance on one hand the economic interests and investments and the security concerns of europe and germany. on the one hand versus the human rights developments in the political dimension that visit many egyptian diplomats were trying to prepare for it a while ago. and the german chancellor had this condition that the parliamentary elections should be held first. but then she did not stick really to her conditions the parliamentary elections were canceled in march and it's still -- it still happened that visit. and as you mentioned, some of the legitimate poll tippings, including the president of the

parliament were having main concerns and refuse to go meet sisi because of these political conditions and also human rights records. >> what do you make of the timing then of this specific visit? >> no, it was prepared -- it was attempted a while ago. but there were certain conditions they wanted to be met. yesterday we saw the postponing of the sentencing and the release of egyptian american activist who was arrested and sentence then he gave up his nationalities to leave the country. because he has an american nationality. and these were signals more or less that the conditions are being better or signals are being sent there to -- so that he doesn't get embarrassed in germany. but what will happen is probably you'll see the pro demonstrations, the pro sisi demonstrations and the count are sisi demonstrations at the same time. and it's still a controversial

visit, whether it will engender contracts and economic investments in the country or not, that still remains to be seen but politically it is very divisive. >> yeah, there are as you are saying, there are already demonstrations from what we understand pro sisi as well as those that are december demonstrating against his visit taking place in germany. let me ask you about the message that this visit sends to egyptians in egypt. >> egyptians in egypt are quite divided the ones supporting the regime will see it as european legitimacy germany, one of the main players in europe, you know giving sisi legitimacy by meeting him in that way. the ones who are anti-regime who are suffering from the crack downs will see it, of course as hypocrisy on the part of europe as for earn policy based on pure interest and disregards any values that europe upholds

whether it's democracy or the respect of human rights. human rights watch called what is happening in egypt probably the worst crisis in its mod attorney history. and there is no mistake that this regime is much more brutal than that of mubarak and compared to any ooh-rah jim before. this is when you have to really make a choice whether to uphold these principles or to negotiate and go ahead with the. [speaking at the same time] >> it's everyone not the first european country that sisi visited. last year he was in france and italy. it is not but it's still a continuation of -- it will be a disappointment for those ones that oppose this rah kwraoefpl and continuation of this idea in their perception that europe is not upholding its values. >> okay, thank you very much for joining us, omar talking to us from doha. well the u.s. president barack obama has criticized israeli prime minister benjamin

netanyahu on israeli tv. obama says his position on palestinian statehood endangers israel's credibility. patty culhane has more. >> reporter: fairly blunt criticism from the u.s. president barack obama speaking to an isreali reporter talking about the israeli prime spinster he says he's predisposed to think of security first that perhaps he sees peace as naive and that he intends to see the worst possibilities as opposed to the best possibilities in his arab partners. but his toughest talk came when he was ask billion dollar what the prime minister said in the run up to the election if he was reelected there would be no two-state solution. >> subsequentsly his statements have suggested that there is the possibility. a palestinian states, but it has so many caveats. so many conditions that is it not realistic to think that

those conditions would be met any time in the near future. >> right. >> and so the danger here, is that israel as a whole loses credibility. already the international community does not believe that israel is serious about a two-state solution. the statement the mime minister made compounded that belief that there is not a commitment there. >> so what's next? well the u.s. president buns again reiterated he's rehe value straighting the u.n. position where it protects israel from resolution that his recognize nays the palestinian people or set a framework for the negotiations. he didn't think now is the time to come up with another framework agreement. but that he wants to see some sort of confidence building measures in the reason un, he didn't say exactly what those were but pointed out that he thinks illegal settlement construction and the inability of people in the west bank to mo